Freekish-Gate: The Drive to Succeed.

So last year, a controversy unfurled. Similar to many a product, there has been a huge price divide between mass produced, “cheaply-made” guitar pedals and hand made “boutique” ones. Often times, there is a psychosomatic effect between the eye and the ear. You see a better looking pedal and in your head you’re convinced that it actually sounds better. For this better sounding, seemingly higher quality pedal many people are willing to pay considerably more money. “Clones” and other copies have cropped up for years, sometimes being very sought after in their own right (which is actually how the company Ibanez started out). In this case, the Joyo Ultimate Drive Pedal is a copy of the Fulltone Obsessive Compulsive Drive (OCD) Pedal. It appears though, that one company, Freekish Blues, decided to drastically cut corners even further. Instead of constructing their own pedals based on market-proven models, they simply repainted the pedal and sold it for over a %400 markup. The Joyo Ultimate Drive pedal can be purchased on ebay for $40 shipped, while the Alpha Drive lists for $168 on their website. They even tried to coverup their handiwork in what forums began to refer to as nutella and nail polish.

Custom, bro.
Word got out, and needless to say, people were upset. Freekish Blues’ name has been run through the mud on virtually every guitar/gear forum around. Freekish owner Ken Abate even went so far as to make a tongue in cheek farewell video about the whole fiasco. That being said, I still wanted an Alpha Drive and almost bought one for $60 on eBay. It is, after all a much better looking pedal, and i would find $20 easily worth the time to sand down and repaint that ugly-as-sin Joyo (as well as have an inside joke on my board). Alas, someone else had the same idea, and once the bid was twice that of the Ultimate Drive, I walked away. I will probably get the Joyo soon and repaint the enclosure, and who knows, maybe sell one to a friend and the cycle will begin anew.

I guess I just find this interesting, and figure other, non-guitar people might too.

One of Kevin Shields’ Pedal Boards (My Bloody Valentine). One of.

EHX